Sources: Supporting Healthy Youth

81% of teens age 12-17 who use a tobacco product started with a flavored product.

Source: Research studies on flavored product impacts cited in the 2021 Truth Initiative fact sheet "Flavored tobacco use among youth and young adults"

<1% of Washington's tobacco-related revenues are invested in prevention and cessation.

Explanation:

Washington receives almost $500 million per year in tobacco tax revenues and Master Settlement Agreement payments from the tobacco industry. None of these funds are dedicated to helping people who want to stop using nicotine products, supporting nicotine-free youth, or countering the constant onslaught of enticing new products from the tobacco industry.

From 2012-2022, less than 1% of tobacco-related Washington state revenues were invested in nicotine prevention and cessation. In FY 2022, total state funding for commercial tobacco prevention and cessation was $1.6 million. Current state funding in FY 2025 is $4.6 million.

Sources:

• Revenues from WA commercial tobacco taxes obtained from Washington State Department of Revenue's annual Tax Statistics reports.
• Actual Annual Tobacco Settlement Payments Received by The States, 1998-2022. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. https://assets.tobaccofreekids.org/factsheets/0365.pdf
• Annual reports of the WA State Treasurer’s Office for state license fee and fine revenues to the Youth Tobacco & Vapor Product Prevention fund.
• Annual state budget authorizations to the Washington State Department of Health for its commercial tobacco prevention program were obtained from legislative records and a data request to the Department of Health.

Additional information about commercial tobacco revenues and spending is on our Restoring Comprehensive Funding webpage.

Annually, the tobacco industry spends over $84 million on marketing in WA State. That's almost 20 times the state's $4.6 million investment in FY 2025 for all nicotine prevention and cessation programs.

Sources:

• U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Cigarette Report for 2022, October 2023; FTC, Smokeless Tobacco Report for 2022, October 2023; FTC, E-Cigarette Report for 2021, April 2024. State total marketing is a prorated estimate based on cigarette pack sales in the state, as reported by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids on their Toll of Tobacco in Washington webpage (last accessed September 3, 2024).
• Annual state budget authorizations to the Washington State Department of Health for its commercial tobacco prevention program were obtained from legislative records and a data request to the Department of Health.

68% of youth who vape have tried to quit, but almost two-thirds had no cessation support.

Source: "Adoption of Vaping Cessation Methods by US Adolescent E-Cigarette Users". Dai et al. Pediatrics 152 (5). November 2023. Analysis of data from the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey.